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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Back in Fairbanks

A sure sign of Spring in Fairbanks are the ice carvings beginning to show up. This one has actually been here for a while and in front of a dentists office on a very busy corner in town. It is showing its age and melting from the warm weather. This dentist always has an angel ice carving for quite a number of years.

This evening, we tried out a newly remodeled restaurant in town. This is tofu cooked on a cedar plank (like they do fish on a grill) with an Asian ginger glaze. Very delicious though I could only finish half of it before feeling full. Only a short time ago, this wouldn't have sounded too appetizing.

After much thought, I've decided to dramatically alter my diet. I watched quite a few video documentaries some several times and read a lot of articles on nutrition and diet especially those with a focus on those with type 2 diabetes, and I came up with the following "dietary rules". No dairy, minimal animal protien, minimal fat, low carbs, minimal fruit and the rest non-starchy vegetables. I figure that at least 80% plant based. For now, I will continue with the green drink fasting at least every other day. And continue with my B12, C and D supplements. I'll see how this goes for a while. Since the beginning of 2014 I've managed to drop 15 lbs. it seems like a good start.

On another note, during my last trip home from the Silver Gulch well after sunset (the trip when I had the burned out alternator rotor), I discovered how poor my distance lighting really was. The LED fog lights do a great job illuminating the sides of the road but don't provide any distance illumination. I've had a number of friends swear by the Denali LED driving lights from Twisted Throttle. Revzilla sold them individually instead of a set and I still had some of the "Zilla Cash" left that was going to expire soon so I ordered one Denali D1 LED driving light.

I installed it on the side of the sidecar where I had originally installed an LED parking light. I also wired the fog lights and the new driving light to switch with the high-low beam toggle. The single driving light draws 1 amp the same as the two fog lights so total amperage hasn't changed. There is another Airhead get together next Monday evening. That'll be a good chance to try it out. Standing in front of the bike, the small LED driving light seems really bright compared to the headlight.

6 comments:

WOW! 15 pounds since the start of the year? That's impressive. Even I, at my slight weight, know I should back off the bread and potatoes. I don't even like potatoes that much, but they make a lot of body heat...

I am impressed with the weight loss. Well done. It took way longer for me to get that far, and now with all those vegan food choices in Germany I have a hard time keeping it where I want it ;-) Everything is so delish.

I started the month with moderating portions but that didn't help with the way I was feeling. Dropping the meat and most carbs got me feeling much better. I think you were one of the ones initially making me think about changing my diet. I sort of dabbled with vegetarian and vegan offerings and discovered that some of it was very tasty. So thank you for the inspiration.

It sounds like you have a handle on the nutrition. Once we went vegan we tried a lot more foods and prepared them differently. I think we eat a wider variety of foods now than we did before. Our portion control is what gets us sometimes or the vegan junk food. We eat a bag of potato chips every once in a while and know we shouldn't. Of course it is followed by a day or two of raw meals to compensate.

Congrats on the weight loss so far.

I still marvel over how much better my digestive system is without meat. And wonder why none of my doctors ever suggested it with my Crohn's.

I suspect that the doctors are all about treating with medication rather than diet and exercise. My doctor had me meet with a dietician to make some changes and when combined with exercise helped. But still would feel miserable after eating unless portion was very small.

Chris mentioned the "vegan junk food" and I was surprised to hear what qualified.

While we were on MN, we visited my newly vegan cousin who is recovering from a heart attack. I always thought that he was in really good shape and ate well but he has opted to dramatically change his diet.

You and Brad are also an inspiration especially with your food blog. Lots of tested recipes with real world comments.